Paakirjä
Founding Year Teipanuu declared Lomrikyrateen in FY 21. Capital City Sydä. Geography Paakirjä dominates the centre of Taresani, and covers well over a third of the island. It is a mostly low-lying land, the terrain lifting moderately as one goes east until the Nasvija Fells, being a rough and rocky region which runs nearly the entire length of the nation. Beyond the Nasvija Fells lies the Tisäym Peninsula, a low, marshy region home to the saighe Ratazh and the city of Sivöppa on the shores of the Siirimat Gulf, which forms the southeastern boundary of the nation. Most of the gulf is considered the territory of Paakirjä, its southern reaches part of Utempe and Saonedh. In the centre of the bay is the island of Kasijerne, notable for being the location of the village of Daenshre, a settlement of the Nyadegtaan. Elven forests cover much of Paakirjä, with six distinct spans within the nation’s borders: the Sipameljöö in the far southwest; the northern third of the Wood-of-Glass in the southeast, the forest straddling the border between Paakirjä and Utempe; the Anteiljöö north of the capital city of Sydä; the Thanmuîr in the far northeast, bounded in the north by the borders of Hentölla and in the east by the Nasvija Fells; the southernmost spans of the Väältainiljöö, most of which lies within Hentölla; and the Wisyemgài, in the far northwest above the saighe Ospolg’. Paakirjä is bisected by the Veesat River, which runs from the southern regions of the Thanmuîr and the Nasvija Fells beyond, flowing southwest. Two cities lie upon the Veesat, being Hakeli in its upper reaches, built in FY 15 as a stronghold against the ceaseless orc raids, and Sydä at the river’s mouths to the Aekan Sea, at least four centuries the elder of Hakeli. The land north of the Veesat River and west of the Aekan Sea is the more sparsely populated, with thinner soil, deeper forest, and, generally, colder winters. South of the Veesat River, conditions are more favourable to human habitation, though it retains the harsh, dark winters characteristic of Taresani in general. The Veesat River is the longest in Taresani, and notable for the purity of its waters through most of the year. In the spring, the snowmelt causes the river to flood its banks, and consequently both Sydä and Hakeli are well-fortified against incursions by the river into their streets. Much of the land north of the Veesat River is a broad, relatively flat plain, ranged mainly by shepherds and their flocks. Peat bogs are highly common throughout the northern plains. The dominant bodies of water in the north are the Lakes Keinuvare, the larger, and Estöyvi, the smaller, both of which are drained by the Maaturo River. As one goes farther northeast, the combination of harshening soil and the increasing proximity to Hentölla soon leads to the disappearance of human settlements altogether: the only people dwelling in the far northeast are the elves in the Thanmuîr and the Väältainiljöö, and half-orcs in their fortified villages. Most of the north is desolate of human habitation, a vast span of bogs, rolling moors, and lonely lakes. The Nasvija Fells in the east are jagged and dangerous, being the preferred route of infiltration by orcish raiders that range as far south as the territories about the city of Jutyyl. The fells are sparsely inhabited in the south and empty in the north, their only consistent trail being a road connecting Hakeli and Ratazh. The southern reaches of Paakirjä are lushly green and (for Taresani) thickly inhabited, with broad fields of barley and of rye. The region along the border of Utempe rolls gently and is marked by spans of mixed forest. As with the rest of Taresani, the climate of Paakirjä is cool and rainy, with intensely snowy winters, stormy springs, pleasant and sunny summers, and bleak, foggy autumns. There is another territory that also belongs to Paakirjä, across the Pale Sea: in FY 63, the Cronvtani Isles were annexed by the order of the Lomrikyrateen Rahaimu. He then ordered the building of a substantial fleet, which would patrol the waters between the Isles and their home port at Tarjo, to form a limit on any expansion of Drecitou across the Pale Sea. The Cronvtani Isles are rocky and heavily wooded, with nothing more advanced than coastal villages, and two larger fishing towns, Tsajeb and Kodez. The only inhabitants of the isles are the native Ve’karŧma humans, and a small number of elven tribes. Population & Demographics As one might expect from such a physically removed location, Paakirjä is highly homogeneous in its demographics, with virtually all of its human inhabitants being of Iseilua ethnicity. The Iseiluaan languages are all mutually intelligible with each other across the nation, and the language of government and trade is simply the native dialect of Sydä, Sydääkut. As with everywhere else in Kerlonna, the elves are found in their forests, while the dwarves and gnomes delve their saighes. None of the halflings are of the Nheawyrsen, as the old caravans of grass that once ranged the region were destroyed during the Great Orc-Wars. In Paakirjä there are approximately five hundred thousand human inhabitants, though the government maintains no census; eighty thousand dwarves and seventy-one thousand gnomes in the three saighes of Ratazh, Paskha, and Ospolg’; somewhere around seven thousand elves; eleven hundred half-orcs in the northern regions; and perhaps two and a half thousand halflings. The number of half-elves is negligible. In the far southern regions, along the Utempe border, some of the villages are ethnically Nimastha, but they have no quarrel with being governed by the Iseilua, and their inhabitants number less than two thousand. In the Cronvtani Isles, the human inhabitants are of an ethnicity found nowhere else in the known world. They call themselves the Ve’karŧma, which, with the peculiar stridency characteristic of their language, roughly means “forerunners.” The Ve’karŧma number around two thousand across the Cronvtani Isles, and are likely one of the purest ethnicities in Kerlonna: mixture with outside blood is simply unknown, and they superstitiously avoid any contact with the elves that share their islands. Government & Foreign Relations Although it superficially resembles a monarchy, the government of Paakirjä is not quite the same. It is based primarily on principles of military alliance: the nation was built first of all to provide a shield against the orcs, and second as a home for the confused and war-stricken Iseilua. The Kyrateen resemble the Drecitoun and Sraiyag Vacani lords in their authority, but their titles are not hereditary. They are drawn by common election from the local military, and the Kyrat of Sydä is also elected as Lomrikyrateen. A title is not a privilege, nor a gift, but a grave duty that must be treated with the utmost solemnity. The Lomrikyrateen’s power is constrained by certain strictures laid down by Teipanuu I in his first edicts, such as providing a defence for all peoples of Paakirjä against the orcs, without exception (even for the half-orcs, whom most in Paakirjä fear and hate), and never lying in an official statement on pain of death. The government, however, is not purely martial by any measure: the Kyrateen exercise their military authority only rarely, and much of their time is more concerned with tax matters than repulsing any orcish threat. Taxes are typically made up of material goods and not of coinage, as currency is essentially unused in Paakirjä. Most of the government’s revenue is derived from trading crops, wool, and iron and silver ingots with the merchants of Drecitou (via Utempi merchant vessels), and this revenue is mainly invested in the military and the roads. While Sraiyag Vacan and Ishkula are notably martial nations, they do not invest nearly as high a percentage of their governmental revenue in the military as the Lomrikyrateen does. However, the legal system is mainly kept separate from the military. In Iseilua culture, the military and government have a strong level of connection, but law should only be tenuously connected to government, and completely unconnected from the military: rulers and soldiers can break the law as easily as anyone else. The legal system is referred to as Sykkin, and is a polycentric system of mainly unwritten moral codes. Surprisingly, there is very little use of the death penalty in Sykkin, as it is regarded as a “final measure.” There is no infrastructure for imprisonment in Paakirjä, and so the usual punishment just below the death penalty is exile. If Utempe, Saonedh, and Drecitou refuse to accept an exile, then he is sent to Hentölla, where he will almost certainly die. Sykkin is overseen not by the Kyrateen, but by judges who are chosen at adolescence and trained until the age of twenty-two. In rural areas, there are no formal police, but soldiers fill that role in the cities. The only significant government presence in the Cronvtani Isles is made up of the ships that patrol the Pale Sea. Taxes are gathered from that outlying region but rarely, and many in government tend to forget that it exists. The only real foreign relations that Paakirjä has are with Drecitou, Utempe, and Saonedh. The elven forests, saighes, halfling caravans, and half-orc border villages are regarded as subject to the government of Paakirjä and therefore not independent nations (as opposed to the state of affairs in Drecitou and Sraiyag Vacan). Paakirjä has long regarded Drecitou with some measure of resentment, due to the smug sense of cultural superiority that a Drecitoun lord so often radiates. The Drecitouns seem soft and pliable to any Paakirjäni, with a repulsive lust for gold and a childishly contrary attitude towards those in power. However, Drecitou is vast compared to Paakirjä, with a far larger navy now than it had during the War of Serlau, and a famously unpredictable power structure. The Paakirjäni know the cunning and insight of the Drecitouns all too well from their dealings with merchants from that nation. Utempe is an entirely different matter. When House Gemsari first came to Taresani, the natives treated them with scorn, calling them “meek outlander gold-men.” However, those who had once lived in Marnic luxury rapidly proved themselves hard, brilliant, and dangerous, eradicating the orcs that had troubled southern Taresani with their hired swords, and reconciling themselves to the recalcitrant Nimastha. The relationship between the Kyrateen and House Gemsari has been ambiguous since the Restoration: on the one hand, House Gemsari has a wilful, expansionist streak in its attitude towards Saonedh and Paakirjä, but on the other, they are docile and obedient in military matters, always deferring to the “expertise and experience” of Paakirjäni soldiers. As power comes by birthright and not by election, members of House Gemsari are far harder to predict than the Kyrateen, and in some ways, the Gemsari seem to the Paakirjäni like “hard Drecitouns,” which alarms them. Finally, Saonedh is regarded as weak. The tenuous power of House Sahun, compared to its vigorous founder, irks the Kyrateen, and they have not even faced one orc-raid since the wars. The Paakirjäni would even aid the Utempi in invading and annexing Saonedh, but for the fact that House Gemsari would likely find a way to take advantage of that aid and twist it until they had a decisive hold upon Paakirjä in some way. Economy When asked about it, a rather foolish Drecitoun merchant may laugh and say, “Paakirjä doesn’t have an economy!” He would be mistaken, but his error is not difficult to comprehend. Paakirjä’s economic contact with Drecitou is severely limited, thus constraining the formation of regular trading routes and contact with Kerlonna at large. Most of the trade across the Pale Sea is managed by House Gemsari. The Kyrateen are not particularly possessed with business acumen, and prefer to let the Utempi negotiate with flint-eyed Drecitouns, even if it means Kerlonnic goods will be significantly more costly. Even before the Great Orc-Wars, the Iseilua were an inward-looking people, and they have only grown more so with the threat looming upon their northern border. Wheat is difficult to grow at the nation’s northern latitude, and wheat flour is mixed heavily with that of rye when creating bread. True wheat-flour bread is virtually unheard of. The main crops are rye, barley, and oats. Rye and barley are the staples for human consumption, while oats are heavily grown in the fields of livestock. Oats are looked down upon as “beast-food,” and are only used to supplement the diet of the truly impoverished. Any traveller from Kerlonna will note that beef is scarcely to be had in Paakirjä, but in spring lamb is plentiful, and mutton is the main meat. In descending order of importance, the livestock of Paakirjä are: sheep; ponies; cattle; and pigs. Wool is a vital product in Paakirjä, and sometimes even manages to make its way to Drecitou upon Utempi vessels. The main export of Paakirjä to Kerlonna, however, is worked metal. The Nasvija Fells are rich in iron deposits, and silver ore is commonly found in the northwest in an arc from Kiesan to Meäda. Iron and silver ingots are sold in bulk directly to Drecitou, where silver is rare and iron only common in the southern provinces. In Paakirjä itself, silver is unusually cheap compared to elsewhere in Kerlonna, and trade in silver jewellery is fairly profitable. Due to its scarcity in northeastern Kerlonna and Taresani, gold is extremely rare in Paakirjä, and indeed, most of the Paakirjäni do not find its colour particularly pleasing. In Paakirjä, most jewellery is silver, or a variety of highly burnished steel. The only textiles frequently found in Paakirjä are linen and wool. Despite its vast forests, extensive logging is very rare in Paakirjä. The Iseiluaan religion is deeply respectful of the forests, and management of them is considered a social duty. Besides which, there is little demand for lumber: Drecitou certainly has all that it needs, as does Utempe. Along the coasts, the summer salmon runs are cause for ecstatic religious rituals and celebrations, so plentiful are they. The salmon runs are culled under the vigilant eyes of druids, watching from afar and bringing terrible misfortune down upon any village that damages its own fishing stocks. The harvested salmon are mainly smoked or salted, with only a few eaten fresh, and the preserved fish is then traded deep inland. The most dramatic salmon run in Taresani is that of the Veesat River, where the salmon will swim nearly to Hakeli. The barley and rye crops are mainly grown south of the Veesat River, in the regions about the saighe Paskha and the city of Jutyyl. The great pastures, in turn, lie north of the river. Hakeli and Sydä are vital as points where northern wool and meat are traded with southern grain. Shipbuilding is exclusive to the city of Tarjo on the southwestern peninsula, at the mouths of the Aekan Sea. Compared to the great harbours in Sraiyag Vacan and Ishkula, Tarjo’s ports are not particularly impressive, but a rural Paakirjäni would find the ships almost overwhelmingly vast. In most of the slow rivers and quiet lakes of Paakirjä, there are no ships larger than the coracles of fishermen. Culture Taresani’s long isolation from Kerlonna has given the Iseilua and their nation a culture that many from the continent find remarkably foreign. The most easily noticeable characteristic is how women are treated: while women of the nobility in the former Federation are given a certain amount of rights and, in Sraiyag Vacan, are even occasionally allowed to own property, in Paakirjä women are property, regardless of their class. A woman who “resists” her husband is regarded as shameful and unmarried women are often suspected of witchcraft. The only warrior position open to women is that of the Vynnesti, the paladin. Vynnestiin of both sexes are required to drink a mixture of herbs that renders them without sexual desire and infertile, and “renders manly” the women: their breasts diminish, their voices deepen, and they grow more muscle. A woman that gives birth only to female children is regarded as unlucky, and often may be regarded as a burden upon her family due to the cost of dowry. The main tenets of Paakirjä are indistinguishable from the tenets of its main inhabitants, the Iseilua. When one describes the culture of one, he also describes the culture of the other. The Iseilua are famously taciturn and withdrawn, looking unfavourably upon chatter and idle socialisation. A general introversion marks their entire world: Iseilua homes are dull and bland on the exterior level, but within are brightly coloured and adorned. A tavern in Paakirjä is easily one of the quietest one might find in Kerlonna, for the patrons are not there for boisterous pleasure, but to meet with their friends and discuss matters of importance. Among the Iseilua, emotionality is avoided, and adherence to custom is vital. They laugh softly, if at all, and when angry frown, rather than shout. Many foreigners have been killed when they mistook an Iseiluaan man’s seething fury for mere irritation. Exceptions to this rule exist, as exceptions do in any culture, but they are usually social pariahs of some sort. Art is highly valued in Paakirjä, mainly because it is one of the few available activities during the long silence of a winter in Taresani. The art of the Iseilua is fairly abstracted, often depicting wildlife and wilderness rather than civilised scenes. The duality of summer and winter, so sharp in the far north, features heavily in all art, with summer identified with the bountiful union of male and female, and winter identified with their ruinous division. Their music is without any significantly sophisticated instruments, mostly just utilising skin-drums, simple flutes, and the human voice. Epic poems recounting the history of the Iseilua are a vital part of the oral tradition, recited in a simple chant with a drum keeping time. Despite their isolationistic streak, the Iseilua highly value hospitality, and regard the inability to accommodate a guest as shameful. They are not, however, much interested in socialising with their guests, instead providing food and shelter only. Since legal matters are overseen more by Sykkin than by the government, justice is direct in Iseiluaan society, and everyone knows what punishments occur for what transgression. Their food tends to revolve heavily around the native grains, berries, mutton, and sheep’s milk of the region, and for alcoholic drink they mainly produce low-strength berry wines, reserved for the winter when milk is unavailable and water difficult to produce. Unlike most cultures of Kerlonna, the Iseilua lack any particular emphasis on honour, mainly due to the fact that the law hangs upon all heads equally, removing the need for any system of honour to protect the rights of the free man. While slavery certainly exists in Paakirjä, it does not take the form of a widespread slave trade as one finds in southern Kerlonna. Rather, it is closer to the Idroslekhi form of the “indentured bloodline,” where a small number of families belong to the nobility and are, in many ways, benefited by this. However, slaves belonging to particularly cruel noblemen have no legal protection whatsoever, and their only hope for escape is to flee into the wilderness. Half-orcs in particular are often enslaved, and those that flee have the hope of crossing the wilds until they reach the border villages on the verge of Hentölla. Among the Iseilua, deference is based on age, and almost all men grow some form of beard in order to appear older and thus, more venerable. When witnessing the behaviour of an inferior towards a superior among the Iseilua, a foreigner may note various elements of body language among the Iseilua: walking with the superior slightly ahead, even if they are slowed by age; crossing the arms in front of the stomach such that each hand grips the underside of the opposite forearm, showing friendliness and trust (as the person is unable to touch their weapons); and a rapid clicking of the tongue, indicating enthusiastic agreement or convincement, depending on context. When signifying a more dominant role, the body language changes notably: one strides ahead of others, and clasps the hands into the small of the back, vigorously snorting to show disagreement. Equals (found only in same-sex friendships, for the most part) signify their relationship by clasping the arms in front, but loosely, and lifting their eyebrows accompanied with either a smile or frown to signify agreement or disagreement. The agreeable tongue-clicking and assertive snorting are regarded as purely signs of inferiority and superiority, respectively, and use towards equals indicates either undue humility or arrogance. The Iseilua take an extremely dim view of homosexual activity, regarding effeminacy as depravity. Adultery is heavily punished, but most of the punishment falls upon the head of the man involved. In one of the few subversions of the typical male dominance in Iseiluaan culture, a woman whose husband has committed adultery is permitted by Sykkin to beat him with a birch rod until she is too tired to continue. Adulterers of both sexes are ostracised, sometimes for years, until they are able to prove themselves worthy of being reaccepted into the community. Men usually do this through military service, while women may becomes herbalists of noted skill. Rites of passage occur at the age of seventeen, when the child becomes an adult and is considered ready for marriage. A boy becomes a man through his first hunt, while a girl becomes a woman when she is deemed ready by her father in household tasks and emotional maturity. Marriages are monogamous and adultery is, as mentioned above, severely discouraged. A noticeable exception is with slaves: a man who lies with his female slave is considered no adulterer, as the slave is not considered to have the social capacity to form or break the bonds of marriage. Women are permitted to lie with male slaves, but the child they bear is not considered “a true child” of that woman, and is instead raised by adoptive slave parents. Funereal ceremonies are dignified and simple, and, as one might expect from the stoical culture of the Iseilua, there are no tears to be seen. No matter the manner of their death, the body is carried naked from the village to a forested clearing, where the Silent Children wait. The body is laid upon a flat stone, where the Silent Children lay dried flowers upon its chest. The Silent Children then stack boughs of dried wood about the body and set it aflame, dancing in its wild light. When the fire finishes, the charred bones are taken from the stone and buried by the family beneath their house. The nobility are buried with their finery and their weapons. The dead are treated with immense respect by the Iseilua, and stealing from graves is regarded as abhorrent. Religion Due to the physical isolation of Taresani, it should come as no surprise that the religions of Kerlonna never managed to establish themselves in Paakirjä. Missionaries of Cagas Guapran and Sahullam try to reach Paakirjä, but the distance is so vast that few are ever able to manage more than occasional conversions. The native polytheism of the Iseilua predominates, with some mixture with the Nimasthari religion in the southeast, and the Ve’karŧma keep their own religion in the Cronvtani Isles. The Iseilua worship a pantheon of eight major and hundreds of minor deities. The patriarch and leader of the gods is Perkuumo, who the Iseilua believe was at first an eagle dwelling high in the boughs of Säitenkyskö (their name for the First Tree, meaning “World-Bearer”). However, Perkuumo looked down upon the world, Maelris, and saw that it was dark and without purpose, and the only life that dwelt upon it was that of the first dragons, who had been birthed with it when it was spun forth by Säitenkyskö. Therefore, he fell towards the world, taking a new form, that of an aged man, vigorous and white-haired. He created six others in his image from clay, but one among the six cracked down the middle, and he remade it into two. Then he gave life and blood to these seven, and they were Vysetlihän, Roittelmar, Kokkisi, Tuarri, Semviili, Ylkööten, and Hävyytönrä. Each of these gods then made deities in their own images, the minor gods of land and sea. After he had created the gods, Perkuumo took up a new work, creating from soil lesser things, animating them with his breath. From forest soil he created the elves; from the gravel of caves he created dwarves; from the dust of gems he created the gnomes; from the loam of meadows he created the halflings; and lastly, from the dirt of the plains he created men. And mankind was the greatest creation of Perkuumo, filling the gods that he had created with wonder. But Ylkööten was filled with jealousy, and silently went forth from the company of his fellows. From his own blood, from ashes, and from spittle, he sculpted a hideous and warlike race that shared his own ruinous, hateful spirit, and they were the orcs. When he proudly presented them to the other gods, his twin Hävyytönrä was aghast, and Perkuumo stared blackly at the blasphemy against him. Perkuumo threw Ylkööten’s creations into the utter east, upon the rim of the world, where none would find them and they would find none. Ylkööten was beaten by the decree of Perkuumo and the hands of Semviili, and then was cast from the circles of the world, to flee to the blackened heights of Säitenkyskö. Afterwards, the other gods built a house beyond time’s reach in the hidden north, which they cloaked with warmth and light, and filled with new and wondrous creations that the world beyond could not know. The Iseilua worship the seven gods with love, and fear the wrath of Ylkööten, whom they attempt to appease with burnt offerings and animal sacrifice. Perkuumo is afforded the most respect, as he is the creator of all but the dragons and the judge of the dead, but Kokkisi is given the most love for her boundless mercy and compassion. The afterlife is divided by three degrees: those pure of heart, virtuous and wise, are gathered by Kokkisi, Semviili, Tuarri, and Hävyytönrä to the hidden gardens of the gods, where they delight in the light eternal. Those who are wicked and monstrous are cast from the world and sent to Ylkööten, where he flays, tortures, and freezes them for a hundred times the length of their lives, then casts them contemptuously back into the world to be reincarnated: for he is so filled with hatred and with wrath that he cannot conceive of making them his allies, preferring instead to torture them as much as he may. Those of neither particular virtue nor vice are fed the waters of forgetfulness by Perkuumo, then led back to the world and reincarnated. The Iseilua believe that those who were tortured after death by Ylkööten for wickedness carry the memory of their agony with them into the next life in the form of the diseases of the soul. Madness is not regarded as a spiritual disease, however, but is a gift from the wild god Roittelmar, allowing the ability to prophecy the future and divine the past. Religious ceremonies are rarely consistent across Paakirjä, due to the unorganised nature of the Iseiluaan religion. They have no particular holy books or unifying doctrines, unlike Sahullam, nor even the same interpretation of a myth or spiritual goals, as in Cagas Guapran. The most common rituals involve invocations to Perkuumo followed by sacrifices to each of the other six in turn, after which the priests declare their defiance of Ylkööten, whose idol always faces away from the congregation, its face twisted in hateful rage. At ceremonies for weddings and newborn children, the idol of Ylkööten is ritually blinded with leaves, and the priests invoke the favour of Kokkisi. It should be noted that the myth attributing the creation of the orcs to Ylkööten arose quite recently with the event of the Great Orc-Wars. Before, Ylkööten was instead accused of having created evil among the other races by debasing them with the ashes, blood, and spittle that later myths say he built the orcs with. Priests are ordained according to ability, not by birth. Perhaps surprisingly for such a heavily patriarchal culture, the Paakirjäni do not have a particular concern about the sex of the priest or, indeed, priestess. Priests may marry and have children, but they are required to dress simply, without jewellery or luxurious fabrics, and have homes of simple design without ornamentation. The spouse of a priest or priestess is often their assistant in the religious ceremonies, but the children are trained in other tasks: it is forbidden for the child of a priest to be ordained in the same town where their priestly parent serves, and it is generally unusual for the child of a priest to consider ordination anyway. Language The nonhuman languages of note are Ghiñêsraf, the dwarven dialects, the gnomish, five halfling wind-tongues, and Danrethui. The languages of Paakirjäni humans are almost all Iseiluaan and closely related to one another. The Ve’karŧma speak a language of their own, Demíkarŧ, unrelated to any other known language in the world, and the Nimastha of the southeast speak a variety of Nimasthari dialects. Some merchants in the nation will speak Drecitoun Marnic, but with some obvious difficulty. Most of the Paakirjäni are completely unable to understand Marnic, and will regard attempts to speak with them in the language with bemusement, and perhaps even offence. The Iseiluaan languages are not particularly closely related to the Nimasthari, but there appears to be an Iseiluaan substrate in the Nimasthari, and there is a measure of cognate vocabulary. Along the borders, a creole of the two has developed, which most regard as boorish. Sydääkut is the “main language” of the nation as far as such a concept can be used in a decentralised state like Paakirjä. To the inhabitants of outside regions, Sydääkut grows increasingly foreign the farther one becomes from the city of Sydä itself. In the regions west of Jutyyl or northwest of Kiesan, Sydääkut is nearly unintelligible, even though it clearly has the sound and grammatical structure of an Iseiluaan language. For Marnic speakers, Sydääkut is a difficult language to grasp with its heavily synthetic structure as opposed to the mildly analytic structure of the Marnic languages. The Paakirjäni people write using an alphabetical system that evolved separately from the Marnic writing system, and is heavily influenced by the style, if not the structure, of Dwarven hieroglyphs. A Marnic-script rendering of Sydääkut has been developed by Drecitoun merchants, but it has only achieved use among the most wealthy and influential of the merchant families in Paakirjä. As with Kerlonna at large (aside from Sraiyag Vacan), the main population of Paakirjä, and indeed all of Taresani, is illiterate. The script of Paakirjä, commonly used by the nobility, merchants, and more educated priests, appears to many like Dwarven hieroglyphs that have been “softened:” with the same basic series of curls and angles, but smoothed and more flowing, almost with the organic appearance of elven writing. As the folktales go, the dwarves of Taresani taught the ancient Iseilua how to write shortly after the Nimasthari invasion, four millennia ago. Perhaps this contributes to, or is even the foundation of, the common stereotype by the low people of Paakirjä of the dwarves as benevolent teachers and wise philosophers deep under the earth. History Before the Great Orc-Wars, there were no organised bodies that could be recognised as “nations” present in Taresani. The Nimastha were ruled by sacral kings, the Iseilua by warrior-shamans. Their fiercely protected isolation from Marnic influence denied any possibility of an imitation of the Federal form. This status quo likely had been maintained for the nearly four thousand years since the Nimastha crossed the Pale Sea and displaced the southeastern Iseilua. However, when the orcs swept into Hentölla, the chaos completely disrupted the original social structure. Whole clans were put to the sword. The Iseilua of Hentölla that were not slaughtered fled en masse, bringing famine and pestilence to the south. However, as the years passed, the humans of Taresani began to drive back the invaders, not with the strength of armies, but with woodcraft and assassination. The Thorns, the first organised adventurers in history, were hired from all races, paid by a loose coalition of the surviving members of the Nimastha nobility, House Gemsari, and the Iseilua clans. By FY 9, while Marnoz was burning, the Iseilua had mounted a new offensive, rowing up the Veesat River and destroying all orcs within twenty miles of its banks. The lineage of the old warrior-shamans had been lost, so many had died, and in their place came new leaders, the Kyrateen (“guardians”). Each Kyrat headed a clan, and was chosen not for birth but for leadership, intellect, and willpower by the general consensus of the people. Under the Kyrateen, the Thorns in the north coordinated devastating clandestine strikes against the orcs, slaying them in their sleep, poisoning their food, and trapping them in concealed pits on the forest floor. By FY 13, the orcs were being consistently prevented from further southward invasions by the elves of the northern forests, while those bands that already lay in the middle lands were being relentlessly hunted and destroyed. The Kyrateen began resettling the scattered clans, integrating northern and southern Iseilua and rebuilding the old cities of their people. The eight year period between FY 13 and FY 21 is today known as the Restoration in Taresani: despite it being the same period when Yenatar Malkerian summoned his great armies and slew the orcs of Kerlonna in their hundreds of thousands, in Taresani the war was already mostly won. In FY 19, House Gemsari established the Kingdom of Utempe, laying claim to all lands in Taresani south of the Veesat River. The Iseilua had had their differences with the Nimastha before, and rule by them was an unappealing prospect, but rule by a group of Marnic noblemen in exile was simply intolerable. Sporadic rebellions against House Gemsari’s soldiers erupted throughout central Taresani during FY 20, finally sparking into open defiance a year later when the Kyrateen assembled at the city of Sydä and declared its Kyrat, Teipanuu, the Lomrikyrateen: “binder of the guardians.” Teipanuu delivered a series of edicts soon after, establishing a new nation of the Iseilua called Paakirjä, named for the fabled homeland in which their myths say they were born at the moment of the creation of mankind. He declared that the southern borders of Paakirjä lay some miles south of the city of Jutyyl, effectively removing half of Utempe’s prospective territory. Kandirza, Lord Gemsari at the time, was a pragmatic man, however, and realised that the Kyrateen were far more powerful than he had initially guessed. He and Teipanuu met in the city of Jutyyl in FY 23, where Kandirza begged the Lomrikyrateen’s pardon and agreed upon the declared border. Furthermore, they signed the now famous Jutyyl Pact, which would grant sweeping powers to the Lomrikyrateen over the military of Utempe in the event of another orcish invasion, and heavily limited the possibility of military conflict between the two new nations. Having thus softened the Iseilua to him, Kandirza was then able to gain a vital economic concession, granting Utempi ships the unlimited right to sail through Paakirjä’s territorial waters. As a result of the Jutyyl Pact, in FY 29 when the Summer Rising began, the Kyrateen ignored Sahun Dkarit’s requests for military aid against House Gemsari. It is highly likely that if the Kyrateen had aided the revolting Nimastha, Utempe would have fallen, House Gemsari would have been driven back to Drecitou, and a racial war would have eventually been ignited between the Nimasthari kingdom of Saonedh and the Iseiluaan kingdom of Paakirjä. As it stands, however, Utempe is beginning to expand northeastward again, aided by open trade with Paakirjä. Paakirjä’s history since the Summer Rising has been mostly peaceful but for two particular events: the War of Serlau, from FY 64 to 66, and the Tisäym Reclamation, from FY 121 to 126. The War of Serlau began shortly after Lomrikyrateen Rahaimu ordered the annexation of the Cronvtani Isles and the building of a fleet to patrol the Pale Sea. The Governor of Serlau Province, Samiart of House Hudremai, was so incensed by this “encroachment” upon Drecitoun territory that he ordered a punitive expedition, numbering over three thousand soldiers, which would destroy the fleet of Paakirjä, annex the Cronvtani Isles, and burn the port at Tarjo. The punitive expedition foundered a month later, most of its soldiers taken prisoner and enslaved, its ships stolen or destroyed for firewood by the Ve’karŧma. The fleet of Paakirjä then sailed south to the city of Serlau, abandoned by Samiart as the Governor desperately fled to Lai-de-Tomne. The personal vessel of House Hudremai was burned in the harbour, and the eighty-four year Sea-Peace began. So named because the Pale Sea was home to only one nation’s military vessels, the Sea-Peace is more often resentfully remembered by the Drecitoun nobility as “the Long Occupation.” The city of Serlau and the town of Celeore, and the land lying between them, were declared territory of Paakirjä, a “repayment” for the attack ordered by Samiart Hudremai. The Governor-in-Exile ruled the rest of Serlau Province from the town of Bansilui, lying some forty miles southwest of Celeore. Serlau and Celeore paid their taxes to Paakirjä rather than to Drecitou, and the cities were guarded by Iseiluaan soldiers rather than those of Drecitoun descent, but it was otherwise not particularly eventful for the people of Drecitou. The Sea-Peace ended in the year 150, when the Lomrikyrateen at the time, Teipanuu III, sold the territory back to the Drecitoun Crown in exchange for a trade agreement, allowing more effective access of the people of Taresani to gold, spices, and silk. The Tisäym Reclamation is a rather different story. During the Great Orc-Wars, the peninsula had been overrun by the invading orcs, and the city of Sivöppa was burned to the ground, its ruins slowly being claimed by the marsh upon which they sat. The saighe of Ratazh was vigilantly protected, however, and the orcs of the region were eventually dispersed and destroyed, mainly by Nyadegtaan paladins based in Daenshre. The native Iseilua who had dwelt there returned from their hiding places in the Fells, but the city was not rebuilt, and there were no defences. During the 90s, orcs began to range into the peninsula once more, burning dozens of villages in their wake and besieging Ratazh. The people of Ratazh drove the orcs from their gates, but did not have the military power to expel them from the peninsula again. As the decades passed, the people of the peninsula were slowly driven from the region, until by the year 121, there were only a dozen villages lying in a ring about Ratazh, where they were defended by dwarven soldiers. However, in FY 121, over fifteen thousand orcs left Hentölla, sailing across the northern seas to aid their people in what would become known as the Little Orc-War, a concerted attempt by the orcs to destroy Sraiyag Vacan. With such a number gone from Hentölla, some of the orc bands in the peninsula began filtering northwards to claim empty hunting grounds and make war on weakened enemies. Lomrikyrateen Ylleisip immediately realised the advantage presented, and sent out messages across the nation, summoning conscripts and hiring mercenaries, creating a rough-hewn expeditionary force with no formal name, but the campaign was later named the Tisäym Reclamation. For five years, while Vauduyat Malkerian prosecuted his heroic campaign against the invasion of his nation, the Reclamation raged through the peninsula’s marshes and forests, while the Lomrikyrateen kept a great count of the decapitated heads that his soldiers brought him. The campaign finished in 126, with the local orcs exterminated or forever driven out, and the count stood at four thousand: eight times the casualties that the soldiers of Paakirjä had suffered. Sivöppa was rebuilt in 128, and it rapidly grew into the port town it had been over a century before, though it remained a city of insignificant size. Presently, the rising hostilities between Utempe and Saonedh have given cause for armourers of Paakirjä to rejoice as House Gemsari purchases their wares, but the Lomrikyrateen, Hävyysre, has been waiting watchfully, apparently alarmed by the possibility that the Utempi would attempt a northwestward expansion. There are also disquieting reports that, apparently, the orcs are wandering down the Nasvija Fells once more, waylaying travellers and skirting the mining villages. If rumours are true, they are gathering in some strength of numbers, and are headed due south. The adventurers of Paakirjä have begun to spread into the Fells as well, and dozens of orc heads have already been tallied, but whether this is truly halting the tide, or simply thinning out the vanguard of a far more lethal onslaught, is still unknown. Military For such a small nation, Paakirjä has a highly sophisticated military. Though it cannot compare to the overwhelming power that Sraiyag Vacan and Ishkula could put upon the field, it is certainly strong enough to hold its own against any potential threat from Hentölla. The soldiers of Paakirjä, however, are highly dissimilar from the soldiers of the former Federation. A Paakirjäni soldier is lightly armoured, with archers wearing ring armour and infantry wearing scale armour, both with helmets. There is only one known suit of Marnic armour in Paakirjä, and it is exclusively worn by the Lomrikyrateen during wartime or ceremonial functions: it was a gift from Kandirza Gemsari to Teipanuu I during their meetings in Jutyyl in FY 23. The climate of Paakirjä tends to be harsh towards horses, and the native animals are ponies. Cavalry, as a result, is rare and impractical. In battle, Paakirjäni soldiers act fluidly and unpredictably, often imitating their main enemies by simply rushing in with berserk fury. They do not fight fairly and regard such an idea as one reserved for those who have not experienced the crucible of war with the orcs. They often use traps, and sneak into encampments to kill soldiers in their sleep. At sea, they will do their best to set the other ship on fire, unless it is valuable enough that they might benefit from stealing it. Infantry are armed with serrated swords: difficult to create, but vital in penetrating thick orcish-hide. Siege weapons are not used, as they have no utility against a nomadic enemy. Marnic arcuballistae are, surprisingly, still used in Paakirjä, despite the knowledge of their design having been lost in Kerlonna itself. Arcuballistae are vital in eliminating orcs at a distance, as they possess the penetrating force necessary to get through both orcish armour and hide. Most archers use bows, however, as even in Taresani, the knowledge of such antiquated technology is waning. When Drecitou fought against Paakirjä during the War of Serlau, the Drecitouns found the Paakirjäni bafflingly unpredictable, seemingly uncoordinated yet destructive. Most have noted uncomfortably that fighting the Paakirjäni is like fighting highly intelligent orcs. When making camp, soldiers often do not even light any fires, and stay absolutely silent. The military command rests, of course, in the position of the Kyrateen. The national army, the Visrakaisu, is divided into seven Onaksiin, each Onaksi led by a Kyrat, and the other six subordinate to the Onaksi of Sydä, led by the Lomrikyrateen. Each Onaksi is then further divided into ten groups of equal size, the Nypäeröön, which are divided based on which region the soldiers originate from. Each Nypäerö is then further divided into five Mykyteiin, each composed of around twenty soldiers. Thus the Visrakaisu is comprised of about seven thousand professional soldiers. However, many more may be conscripted in the event of an orc-war. A professional soldier may recruit at nineteen years, and retire at forty, if he wishes, but most continue serving into their mid-fifties. Retired soldiers are treated with deep respect in their communities, and do not need a governmental pension (not that it has the infrastructure to supply any), as the town or village in which they will reside will gladly support their needs. Paakirjäni soldiers are given a few months’ leave to return to their families, but spend much of the year on patrol in the northern borders, in the Fells, or upon the Pale Sea. The training is ferocious and sometimes even fatal, as the army will not tolerate soft soldiers that cannot hold their own against a force of ravening orcs. The Lomriiskyrateen of Paakirjä I. Teipanuu I, r. FY 21 to 30. II. Kiisamso I, r. 30 to 38. III. Vilraju, r. 38 to 42. IV. Tynlu I, r. 42 to 56. V. Rahaimu, r. 56 to 70. VI. Söljeri I, r. 70 to 79. VII. Mertuun, r. 79 to 95. VIII. Teipanuu II, r. 95 to 107. IX. Tynlu II, r. 107 to 113. X. Ylleisip, r. 113 to 129. XI. Söljeri II, r. 129 to 131. XII. Väikko, r. 131 to 146. XIII. Teipanuu III, r. 146 to 162. XIV. Ilmannen, r. 162 to 177. XV. Kiisamso II, r. 177 to 184. XVI. Sappursu, r. 184 to 189. XVII. Hävyysre, r. 189 to present (198).